Located in Northern Wisconsin
[email protected] <snip>
Giving up on this one, eh? Probably all for the better...J-body cars
(EEK cars) weren't well regarded. Iacocca inherited the K-car from
Riccardo, and it helped him save Chrysler's bacon, but he "morphed"
the K into too many different "sales packages," (which was all he ever
did with product at Ford) and the results sometimes weren't very good.
This is one example of stretching the K platform past its limits. One
that did work was the T115 "minivan," which was really Chrysler's
savior car, not the Aries/Reliant sedans, despite Iacocca's claims to
the contrary.
Sales of the original K-cars were dismal in '81, not because they
weren't a good product per se (they were), but because we were mired
in the horrid "Reagan Recession" at the time, and interest rates for
car loans, even to people with reasonable credit, were up around 18%.
Still needing cash, Iacocca took the by-then successful K platform and
made it the basis for just about everything Chrysler sold in the '80s
except for the M-bodies and the trucks. While it worked OK for small
"stretches" like the Le Baron, it didn't work well for a "performance
car" any more than the lousy L-platform ("Omnirizon") derivative
TC3/024 hatchbacks became a "Turismo" or a "Charger." I did drive a
Charger Shelby GLH (turboed 2.2) and it had lots of power...and not
much else. The Shelby Daytona I drove was very similar...good power
from the turbo, K-car handling and ride. Worst thing about the
J-bodies was that awful shift linkage. I've driven trucks and buses
with better "feel."